The influence of core geometry on the crystallography of silicon optical fiber

Crystalline semiconductor core optical fibers have received growing attention as greater understanding of the underlying materials science, coupled with advances in fiber processing and fabrication, have expanded the quality and portfolio of available materials. In a continued effort to better understand the nature of the crystal formation this work studies the role of the cross-sectional geometry on the resultant core crystallography with respect to the fiber axis. More specifically, a molten-core approach was used to fabricate silicon optical fibers clad in silica tubes of either circular or square inner cross-sections. In both geometric cases, the silicon core was found to possess regions of single crystallinity where specific crystal orientations persisted along a fiber length of about 4–5 mm prior to transitioning through polycrystalline regions. However, the rotation and tilting angular combination needed to align a given crystallographic axis with the fiber axis was more constant over the single crystalline region in the case of the square-core fiber while more significant variations were observed in the round-core case. This work begins to elucidate some of the microstructural features, not present in conventional glass optical fibers, that could be important for future low-loss single crystalline semiconductor optical fibers.     

A host-guest optical sensor for aliphatic amines based on lipophilic cyclodextrin

A host-guest optical sensor for the determination of aliphatic amines as exemplified by octylamine is proposed. It is based on the reversible fluorescence enhancement of heptakis(2,6-di-O-isobutyl)-β-cyclodextrin(DOB-β-CD) hosting tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) immobilized in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane by aliphatic amine extracted from aqueous phase into membrane phase. The optimum membrane contained 1.15 wt % TPP, 6.15 wt % DOB-β-CD as sensing reagent and other membrane materials. The fluorescence enhancement of the membrane resulted from the formation of a stable three-component complex among DOB-β-CD, TPP, and aliphatic amines. With the optimum conditions described, the fluorescence response of the sensor to octylamine shows a good correlation with the theoretically derived equation in the range 1.0 × 10^–6 to 8.0 × 10^–4 mol/L. The response characteristics including reversibility, response time, reproducibility and lifetime and selectivity of this optical device are also discussed in detail. This sensor has also been applied for the determination of octylamine in water samples containing interferents with satisfactory recovery.     

Synthetic magnetic opals

We present studies of novel nanocomposites of BiNi impregnated into the structure of opals as well as inverse opals. Atomic force microscopy and high resolution elemental analyses show a highly ordered structure and uniform distribution of the BiNi filler in the matrix. These BiNi-based nanocomposites are found to exhibit distinct ferromagnetic-like ordering with transition temperature of about 675 K. As far as we know there exists no report in literature on any BiNi compound which is magnetic.     

Raman spectrum of vitreous BeF2

Raman spectra from vitreous BeF₂ have been obtained and compared with the published calculated density of states.     

Generation of random-hole optical fiber

A new form of holey optical fiber, the random-hole optical fiber, has been devised. The hole structure is produced by generating bubbles in a powdered silica cladding. The bubbles are then drawn into tubules of random size, location, and length during the fiber-draw process. Although the tubes are not continuous along the length of the fiber, as has been the case in previous holey fibers, the tubes are very long, and the average number of holes in any cross section is large. Waveguide losses of approximately 1.55 dB/m have been measured.     

Core-suction technique for the fabrication of optical fiber preforms

A novel technique, named "core suction," for fabricating optical fiber preforms has been devised. The technique involves drawing the molten nonconventional core glass material into the cladding tube to form the preform. The developed technique is simple, inexpensive, and shows great potential for fabricating preforms of highly nonlinear nonconventional glasses as the core material. Preforms were made with Schott SF6 and a lead-tellurium-germanate glass in silica cladding tubes, and these preforms were then pulled into fibers.     

A host-guest optical sensor for aliphatic amines based on lipophilic cyclodextrin

A host-guest optical sensor for the determination of aliphatic amines as exemplified by octylamine is proposed. It is based on the reversible fluorescence enhancement of heptakis(2,6-di-O-isobutyl)-β-cyclodextrin(DOB-β-CD) hosting tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) immobilized in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane by aliphatic amine extracted from aqueous phase into membrane phase. The optimum membrane contained 1.15 wt % TPP, 6.15 wt % DOB-β-CD as sensing reagent and other membrane materials. The fluorescence enhancement of the membrane resulted from the formation of a stable three-component complex among DOB-β-CD, TPP, and aliphatic amines. With the optimum conditions described, the fluorescence response of the sensor to octylamine shows a good correlation with the theoretically derived equation in the range 1.0 × 10^–6 to 8.0 × 10^–4 mol/L. The response characteristics including reversibility, response time, reproducibility and lifetime and selectivity of this optical device are also discussed in detail. This sensor has also been applied for the determination of octylamine in water samples containing interferents with satisfactory recovery. Received: 21 November 1999 / Revised: 10 January 2000 / Accepted: 15 January 2000     

Near-infrared sources in the 1–1.3 μm region by efficient stimulated Raman emission in glass fibers

Low-loss glass fiber waveguides are found to be excellent media for Raman lasers and amplifiers in the near-infrared region of the spectrum. Multiwavelength emission in the 1–1.3 μm range is readily obtained by efficient stimulated Raman scattering in single-mode silica fibers. With a 1.064 μm pulsed pump of 250 W in a 175-m, 6-μm diameter single-mode silica fiber we observed four orders of Stokes radiation at 1.12 μm, 1.18 μm, 1.23 μm and 1.3 μm, respectively. Our results imply that pulsed tunable stimulated Raman emission in this wavelength region is possible using kW tunable infrared dye lasers near 1 μm as pumps. These sources are useful for studying the dispersion of glass fibers as well as for other spectroscopic applications.